Various fingerprint recognition devices have been used for commercial and military applications. Many of such conventional fingerprint recognition devices focus on matching patterns of a captured fingerprint to an existing database of fingerprint samples. If a match is found, the fingerprint is deemed to be valid, but if a match is not found, the fingerprint is deemed to be invalid. One of the drawbacks of such conventional fingerprint recognition devices is that they primarily focus on pattern matching and they are not able to distinguish whether the fingerprint being compared or analyzed is a real finger. In some situations, they do not have the ability to distinguish a fake fingerprint from a real fingerprint if the two have substantially the same fingerprint pattern.
Therefore, there is a need for methods and apparatuses for determining validity of fingerprints that can address the above issues of conventional fingerprint recognition devices.